Depends on whether Palm delivers a significantly differentiated user experience on the new hardware. If webOS multitasks faster, or supports certain titles that only run on the new hardware, or has better battery life, those are all important things. If it has WiMax or LTE, for instance, it will allow better streaming.

If it's just a Pre in a new case, less so. The Incredible feels and operates like a Hero in a smaller case.

Of course, webOS gets regular updates -- HTC Android devices, less so. That's partially due to the silly versioning of Android where major revisions have little improved functionality from an end-user perspective. The other problem is that if you want to get a new revision of Android, you're typically forced to change handsets, since the vendors take so long to get parity out.

But HTC Sense feels the same on Android 1.5/1.6 as it does on 2.2. The web browser feels and operates the same, with no noticeable speed increases. The Exchange client looks and feels and works the same. I didn't find any applications in the Android store during my quick perusal that worked better on the higher res screen.

I wouldn't see much of a point of "upgrading" if I was a Sprint Hero user (or an Eris user on Verizon). I suspect Palm (and Apple) will do a better job in that regard in differentiating the user experience with future devices.

I really don't get what the point of your argument is. I agree that software is more important and all that, but it's just the natural progression of technology. When you say that the incredible is not worth upgrading to from the hero/eris, I would agree with you, but what about all of the people looking for a new phone. Why would they get the eris when the bigger, better incredible is out. Most people don't even know what android is, let alone the difference between android versions out there. They just want to buy the shiny new phone they see on tv. Also, htc is a hardware company, all they do is make hardware. Would you expect dell or hp to make one line of computers and try and sell the same exact models for 3 years until microsoft comes out with a new version of windows???

Some people need to realize that your phone WILL be outdated within 3 months of buying it. Just get over that fact and move on.

IMO if the hardware can't support the software, no matter how good it is, the whole experience is ruined. Which is what I'm seeing reflected on this forum and other device forums too, to be fair.

A questionable piece of hardware just puts people off. I've seen people reluctantly go back to old phones because the new better one just had too many bugs or whatever. Most people need their stuff to just work, in the end.

HP has officially ruined it's own platform and kicked webOS loyalists and early TouchPad adopters to the curb. You think after you drop it like a hot potato and mention it made no money and is costing you money, anyone else wants it??? Way to go HP!!

And some people are fools to keep believing their hype. HP has shown they will throw webOS under the bus and people are still having faith in them??? News flash: if it's own company won't stand behind it, it's finished!

I went to the Verizon store at lunch to pick up a new Bluetooth headset after mine died.

I played around with the Incredible and, well...

It's overrated.

Yes, the hardware is small and pretty, the screen is high res, and the camera is great.

But in terms of user experience, look and feel, and functionality? Not much different from a Sprint HTC Hero.

All these big hardware specification bumps on the Android side don't translate into a meaningfully different experience. If I swapped your Incredible for a Hero, you'd get essentially the same user experience, browser, app availability, on-screen keyboard, and HTC Sense UI.

I've got to hand it to Apple (and Palm) -- software is more important than hardware these days. Assuming this experience holds out for future HTC handsets, all the people who get an EVO will be buying a Hero with a better camera and screen, but otherwise stagnant user interface and experience. You might as well get a clearance Hero and save a couple of bucks.

It's not about the hardware -- hardware that's "good enough" but with great software is far more impressive as a user experience (particularly one that evolves) than amazing hardware with mediocre, stagnant software.

Just my US $0.02.

I've owned both the Hero and now the Incredible. While there isn't very much difference between the two versions of Sense the hardware makes quite a huge difference.

The snapdragon processor chews through anything you can throw at it. Never once have I experienced any lag what so ever, no matter how many different applications I'm running at the same time. Web browsing on it is phenomenal and loads up just about any page in under 15 seconds including the flash. You're claiming that there was no difference at all in the web browsing? The hero is still on android 1.6 which loads pages with the funky 1/4 page view, while 2.1 loads a full page overview, that's a pretty big difference right there and quite noticeable.

My hero always quite constantly lagged while typing which was a quite a pain in the ***. Web pages took forever to load. The whole phone would slow to a crawl with too many applications running and the battery would die with very little use.

There's just no comparison between the two phones. The incredible trumps the hero in everything, and by quite a large margin.

The Android phones strike me as "mine is bigger than yours" phones -- loads of hardware upgrades every few months, poorly leveraged by the OS, that serve as little more than bragging rights. I'll stick with webOS for now.

HTC is simply trying to stay competitive in an ever changing market. They did the same thing with their WM phones, you forget that. That's normal for them. Keep refreshing the line so people upgrade to the same manufacturer instead of going elsewhere, I think may be their strategy. They would be in trouble if people somehow got sick of HTC phones, but so far they seem to be doing OK. Carriers love them apparently.

And Motorola, even though they didn't have good sales figures recently from what I read, has an Android phone for every budget. Not exactly a horrible idea.

HP has officially ruined it's own platform and kicked webOS loyalists and early TouchPad adopters to the curb. You think after you drop it like a hot potato and mention it made no money and is costing you money, anyone else wants it??? Way to go HP!!

And some people are fools to keep believing their hype. HP has shown they will throw webOS under the bus and people are still having faith in them??? News flash: if it's own company won't stand behind it, it's finished!

The Android phones strike me as "mine is bigger than yours" phones -- loads of hardware upgrades every few months, poorly leveraged by the OS, that serve as little more than bragging rights. I'll stick with webOS for now.

What do you want them to do? Completely reinvent the wheel for every phone? They don't do things differently than anyone else in the tech industry. Why do we upgrade computers? To make them faster, and what do we do the upgrade them? Faster cpu, better mobos, better video cards, bigger hard drive, bigger monitor, exactly what HTC is doing with their phones, which are, after all, just small computers. Apple does the same thing only in a more blatantly rip off way. The OS has remained the same except for adding features most dumb phones had, the screen resolution has not changed in 3 generations, neither has the form factor, if anything, they are the laziest and most rip off of all the companies. If you have to ask someone "is that a 3G or 3GS?" you know exactly what I mean.

What do you think Palm is going to do, or actually, already did? Add more memory, call it the Plus! Hey...we did our refresh!

What I am saying is that I don't get your point, what's wrong with "mine's bigger than yours"? That's technological evolution. Adding new features that noone else has is "Innovation".

And to say that there is no difference in the user experience between the Hero and the Incredible seems like a crazy thing to say. I own a Sprint Pre, I never used an Android device. I went to a Verizon store to check the Incredible out with my friend. After playing with it for 15 minutes, I walked over to try out the Eris, which is pretty close to a Hero, and all I could say was "wow, this thing is slow, that screen is small, the Incredible feels so much better".

I'm waiting for the inevitable compatibility problems as apps start having problems across all the different product lines.

That is one thing I worry about too, Google should make the Android Market smart so it filters out apps that won't work or won't work well on your particular phone, which is what Palm is doing in the App Catalog.

Well first off, you're correct about software trumping hardware, this is most evident with WebOS itself; the Pre contains the same internals as the iPhone yet the iPhone KILLS the Pre in performance (even with the 800Mhz patch).

And you can't compare the Incredible to the Hero; the Hero runs Android 1.5 and the Incredible runs Android 2.1 – to say they're identical in response and performance is ignorant.

The iPhone "kills the Pre in performance?" In what sense -- multitasking between apps? Running Flash? What does that mean?

And I'm quite aware of all the hardware and software "differences" between the Incredible and the Hero. My core point is that despite all that "advancement," the user experience is identical. I care about the practical stuff, not the marketing stuff like "versioning."

listen you not making any sense they are both android phones, but no way in hell the feel the same, maybe to you because i feel you hatting on android right now but give props to them, now i love the webos but i wish the wobos was as complete as the android is, lets be honest the only thing we got going right now is the way the webos multi-task and thats it.

What do I want them to do? Deliver a significantly better experience with each revision.

Apple does. Palm does. Even the old Windows Mobile guys did.

Android is all about delivering the same experience on faster and faster hardware. NOT the same thing.

Are you kidding me? I mean what are you smoking? Apple does? Are you being serious? The iPhone is the guiltest of all about delivering the same experience over and over and over with a few features added that were supposed to be there to begin with. And Palm? Exact same thing! Are you blind in your love for webOS or your hatred for Android?

OMG, I can't believe you said that. And WinMO? Significantly better? What the hell dude.... WinMo was very highly customizable, yes, but that's to no thanks to Mircosoft. The experience between all WinMo devices was essentially the same, namely, crappy coz you had to use a little plastic stick to use the OS, that's not a pleasant experience, and it hardly changed! You had to look up the OS version number to tell the difference!

You my friend, need to take a closer look at what you're writing, because in my opinion, you're just plain ignorant.

I bet when the EVO is released you will see alot of Pre's for sale....Just saying..you can stay with the Pre and wait more than a year for a new device...i know i know you think that Palm/HP will have out a new device soon....good for you

That is one thing I worry about too, Google should make the Android Market smart so it filters out apps that won't work or won't work well on your particular phone, which is what Palm is doing in the App Catalog.

The customers should also inform developers, who then fix bugs across devices. The timely ones anyway. I've seen it in the reviews, the good developers respond.

HP has officially ruined it's own platform and kicked webOS loyalists and early TouchPad adopters to the curb. You think after you drop it like a hot potato and mention it made no money and is costing you money, anyone else wants it??? Way to go HP!!

And some people are fools to keep believing their hype. HP has shown they will throw webOS under the bus and people are still having faith in them??? News flash: if it's own company won't stand behind it, it's finished!

I've owned both the Hero and now the Incredible. While there isn't very much difference between the two versions of Sense the hardware makes quite a huge difference.

The snapdragon processor chews through anything you can throw at it. Never once have I experienced any lag what so ever, no matter how many different applications I'm running at the same time. Web browsing on it is phenomenal and loads up just about any page in under 15 seconds including the flash. You're claiming that there was no difference at all in the web browsing? The hero is still on android 1.6 which loads pages with the funky 1/4 page view, while 2.1 loads a full page overview, that's a pretty big difference right there and quite noticeable.

My hero always quite constantly lagged while typing which was a quite a pain in the ***. Web pages took forever to load. The whole phone would slow to a crawl with too many applications running and the battery would die with very little use.

There's just no comparison between the two phones. The incredible trumps the hero in everything, and by quite a large margin.

amen to that, i own a hero and i played a little bit with the incredible, and how can some one say that there is no differences on the two thats just crazy to even say that.